Employees’ job satisfaction has mostly been investigated in developed and developing countries. The researchers investigated the employees’ job satisfaction level and its association with job outcomes variables in all kinds of organizations including industries, business, medical, engineering and education throughout the world. Thus it can be safely said that studying this topic and its association with physical, personal, and environmental features is one of the most interesting and attracted areas throughout the world for many researchers (Caprara, Barbaranelli, Steca & Malone, 2006; Iqbal & Akhtar, 2012; Mengistu, 2012; Rahim & Razzak, 2013; Sodoma & Else, 2009). Those employees whose job satisfaction level is high, they commit their time, energy and efforts to organize and this results in high productivity (Scott & Dinham, 2003). In this context it is assumed that studying job satisfaction is equally important to teachers’ community as Sargent and Hannum (2005) rightly believed that teachers Having a high job satisfaction level is supposed to perform better at their workplace.

The construct “job satisfaction” has variously been defined. Authors like Locke (1976) distinct it as “a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job and job experience” (p. 1304). Similarly, other authors have defined the term in the form of pleasurable and exciting feelings resulting from an efficient and effective performance at working place (Bohlander & Snell, 2006; Simatwa, 2011). In similar fashion, few authors defined the term in form of attributed factors related to working conditions. Bogler (2001) has defined the term in form of extrinsic factors and intrinsic factors, in which, the former factors of job are related with pay, benefits and working conditions while later factors of job are related with achievement, professional prestige, autonomy at workplace and personal and professional development.

A critical review of literature on employees’ job satisfaction revealed that various characteristics related to this construct can be categorized into three areas. The first area is concerned with environmental factors which include working conditions; the second area is related to employees’ demography that consists of elements like age and gender; and the third is related to psychological features such as attitude, personality, and behavior. Halpin (2001) has also identified the same factors. Similarly, Scott and Dinham (2003) have identified the factors related to above mentioned factors.

Researchers and scholars have identified various factors that may be responsible for teachers’ job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Among these factors some are related to working conditions, some are related to children, some are related to head, and some are concerned with society. The major sources of job satisfaction of instructors working at school with children include contribution to society, opportunities for personal and professional growth, salary, collaborative work with colleagues, and schedule of the work. Similarly, the major sources of teachers’ dissatisfaction include students’ failure, social problems, lack of discipline, status, respect and lack of autonomy (Zembylas & Papanastasiou, 2006). Juma, Simatwa, and Ayodo (2011) have found that excellent relationships among teachers; remuneration, improvement and job security be the issues that influence the job satisfaction level. Burón and Lassibille (2016) have found that lack of basic infrastructure and teaching materials, low wages, job insecurity, principals’ controls of teachers, high student-teacher ratios and lack of in-service training may prove to be major causes of job dissatisfaction.

Similarly, You, Kim and Lim (2017) have attributed school personnel job satisfaction to two traits i.e. enduring and attitudinal traits. The former is attributed to teachers’ gender and years of teaching experience, while the latter is attributed to how teachers perceive their job effectiveness and how their colleagues behave at workplace. The teachers have limited power to alter the enduring trait while for attitudinal traits teachers have the greater power to alter. The same facets of job satisfaction have been identified by Pakistani researchers in the local context (Ali, 2011; Aziz, 2013, Chaudry, 2004; Ghazi, 2004; Iqbal, 2010; Rauf, 2012).

Griffin and Bateman (1996) suggested that French benefits, opportunities for promotion, better working conditions, a good relationship with supervisors and colleagues, professional development opportunities and salaries are the aspects that are implicit to be the possible reasons for job satisfaction. There may be three attributes of employees which can affect their job satisfaction level which includes personality, culture and working conditions (Saari & Judge, 2004). In a similar way, teachers’ job satisfaction can also be Attributed to three influential factors including community, school and personal characteristics (Sargent & Hannum, 2005).

The foregoing discussion indicates that a large number of research studies have been conducted throughout the world to highlight the importance of job satisfaction area; in contrast, in the context of local setting this area has not been examined in the background of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Therefore, there remains a gap to investigate this area in the field of education. Therefore, the researchers determined to fill this gap by conducting research on this ignored area.

The researchers used quantitative design and a descriptive (survey) method was preferred to collect data from the sample teachers. All Senior Secondary School Teachers (7406) currently employed in Government Schools of seven headquarters districts (Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Kohat, Peshawar, Mardan, Malakand, and Hazara) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the academic year (2014-15) constituted the accessible population of this study. By using stratified random sampling technique the researchers selected 744 (10 %) school SSST from the seven districts. Out of 744 SSST, 476 were male and 268 female. Similarly, 281 SSST were employed in urban located schools and 463 were employed in rural locality schools.

The researchers distributed 744 survey packets among SSST of sampled districts. A written consent letter was also attached to each questionnaire to invite the participants to participate and rank your opinion on continuum. The consent letter also consisted of describing purposes of study and ensuring confidentiality and anonymity for the institution and teachers. Five hundred and seventy filled questionnaires were collected from the respondents. Out of which twenty-six were un-useable and were discarded. Thus 544 useable questionnaires were used for data analysis with a final response rate 74.61%.

The researchers validated the research instrument through very experienced and renowned experts. After validation of instrument researchers piloted it to thirty school teachers who have not participated in the study. The researchers also found the reliability of the instrument through inter-item consistency. The value of Cronbach’s alpha was (0.80) which indicates that the instrument is highly reliable.

The researchers used parametric tests to analyze the collected information. The researchers analyzed the SSST demographic information through frequency and percentage. The objectives related to determining the level of SSST job satisfaction were determined through mean and standard deviation scores. Using the mid-point mark 3.0 on the five points Likert scale, it was assumed that a statement having mean score of more than 3.0 will demonstrate high level of evidence of job satisfaction. T-statistics and one-way ANOVA were used to find the effect of teachers’ personal characteristics on their job satisfaction, which is one of the objectives of this study. The researchers determined the impact of five independent variables on a dependent variable through linear regression.

Out of 544 respondents, 32.2% of respondents age was less than thirty years; 22.8% respondents age were between 31-35 years; 24.8% respondents age were between 36-40 years; 13.6% respondents age were between 46-50 years and 6.6% respondents age were greater than 55 years. Among the 544 respondents, 63.8% were male SSST while 36.2% were female. Among the 544 respondents, 32.2% have less than five years of teaching experience, 21.5% have less than ten years of experience, 27.9% respondents have less than fifteen years of experience and 18.4% have greater than twenty years of teaching experience.

Out of the 544 respondents, 41.7% have a Bachelor's degree qualification; 54% respondents have master degree qualification and 4.2% teachers have Master of Philosophy or Doctorate of Philosophy degrees. Out of the 544 respondents, 24.3% teachers have AT/TT/CT certificates as professional qualification; 46% have Bachelor in Education degree and 29.8% teachers have Master in Education degree as professional qualification. Out of 544 respondents, 30.3% teachers were working in urban schools and 69.7% teachers were working in rural schools.

Table 1. Rank order correlation among different facets of Teachers’ Job Satisfaction

The table above shows the rank order correlation between the different facets of teachers’ job satisfaction. It is evident from the table that each construct’s mean score was found more than the mid-point 3.0, which shows that the level of teachers’ job satisfaction for each construct is high. As the mean value for the construct “school administration” was found higher than that of other constructs, thus teachers perceive that this construct plays crucial role in enhancing or decreasing the level of teachers’ job satisfaction. In contrast, the mean value for the construct “training opportunities in school” was found low than that of another construct, which demonstrates that this facet plays less role in increasing teachers’ job satisfaction. The value of mean for overall construct was found higher than mid-point 3.0, which indicates that teachers exhibit high level of job satisfaction.

Table 2. Mean & Standard Deviation scores for Overall Teachers’ Job Satisfaction by Selected Demographic Variables

The table above reveals the results of selected demographic variables of SSST with reference to their job satisfaction scores. It is evident from the mean value that male SSST job satisfaction score was found higher than their counterparts. The table also reveals that the mean value of SSST having age less than thirty years of job satisfaction score was found higher than that of other categories of ages of SSST. It is also clear from the above table that the mean value of SSST having teaching experience less than five years job satisfaction score was found higher than that of other categories of teaching experiences of SSST.

The mean scores indicate that teachers having a bachelor level academic qualification was found more satisfied than that of the teachers having a high academic qualification. In contrast, the overall level of job satisfaction of highly academically qualified SSST was found less than that of lower academically qualified SSST. The mean score for overall job satisfaction by professional qualification shows that the less professionally qualified Teachers were found more satisfied than that of highly professionally qualified teachers. In contrast, the overall level of job satisfaction highly professionally qualified SSST was found less than that of lower professionally qualified SSST.

Table 3. Comparison between overall teachers’ job satisfaction by gender

df= 542

The table above shows the comparison between overall teachers’ job satisfaction by gender. It is clear that the SSST job satisfaction significantly differs by gender. The level of male SSST job satisfaction was found higher than that of their counterparts.

Table 4.ONE-WAY ANOVA for overall teachers’ job satisfaction by selected demographic variables

The above table shows the effect of overall teachers’ job satisfaction by age, experience, academic and professional qualifications. The values of one-way ANOVA were found highly significant for overall teachers’ job satisfaction by age, experience, academic and professional qualifications. Thus, it is clear that SSST job satisfaction was significantly differing by selected demographic variables.

Table 5. Overall Effect of Selected Demographic variables on Teachers’ job satisfaction

The table above shows the combined impact of five selected independent variables on teachers’ overall job satisfaction scores.

For this purpose, multiple regression analysis was done. The greater value of R² (0.46) shows that the five independent variables “gender, age, teaching experience, highest academic and professional qualification” was found the better predictors of dependent variable i.e. “teachers’ job satisfaction”. The value of consistent beta shows that these five independent variables add to enhance or reduce the teachers’ job satisfaction level. The highest contributor among the five demographic variables was highest professional qualification of the teachers with regression coefficient value (0.36) and the lowest contributor among the predictors was years of teaching experience with regression coefficient value (0.09). The other predictors were highest academic qualification, age, and gender with regression coefficient values 0.32, 0.26, and 0.11 respectively. It is evident that all the five selected demographic variables have significant impact on overall SSST job satisfaction.

The job satisfaction level of SSST was investigated by using a self-constructed questionnaire having five job facets. The mean scores of all the five job facets were found to be more Than the mid-point 3.0 on the five points Likert scale which indicates high level of SSST job satisfaction. The mean score of the construct school administration was found to be the highest construct among the five constructs of SSST job satisfaction and in-service training opportunities at school were found to be the lowest fact among the five facets. These results show that if the administrative staff (including principals, clerical staff and other officials) are good and treat teachers fairly, this will show the way to enhance the level of teachers’ job satisfaction and if administrative staff dealing is not fair and do not care of their teachers then it will lead to job dissatisfaction of teachers. Conversely, SSST felt dissatisfaction regarding the opportunities provided to them regarding their professional growth and enhancing personal capacities. It shows that there are fewer opportunities for refresher courses, workshops and professional development to teachers at school, which do not fulfill the requirement of the teachers. Other possible reasons for teachers’ dissatisfaction with in-service opportunities might be the improper selection of teachers for training at school by the administration. The results of this study regarding teachers’ job satisfaction levels were in line with many other national and international studies (Aziz, 2013; Ghazi, 2004; Naldi & Rebora, 2009; Rauf, 2012; Tesfaw, 2014).

The researchers found that gender has a significant effect on SSST job satisfaction levels. The mean score suggested that male teachers’ job satisfaction levels were more as compared to female teachers. The results of many national and international studies were found mixed in the literature. Some researchers observed gender is free of any association with school teachers’ job satisfaction (Ali, 2011; Crossman & Harris, 2006; Rauf, 2012), whereas some researchers observed high level of job satisfaction of male teachers (Fran?k, Mohelská, Zubr, Bachmann, & Sokolová, 2014) and third group of researchers observed high level of job satisfaction of female instructors (Chaudry, 2004; Iqbal, 2010).

The researchers found a significant effect on teachers’ age and experience on SSST job satisfaction. The young and newly appointed SSST were found more satisfied than that of old, aged and experienced teachers. Mixed findings regarding the effect of age and experience have been observed. Some researchers found that teachers’ job satisfaction has been effect by their age (Iqbal, 2010) while other researchers' findings show that teachers’ job satisfaction has not been affected by their age (Crossman & Harris, 2006). Similarly, researchers like Chaudry (2004) and Rauf (2010) observed that teachers who have less teaching experience in years were found less satisfied while teachers who have more teaching experience were found higher satisfied. Conversely, some researchers like Crossman and Harris (2006) and Iqbal (2010) observed that teachers’ experience has no significant effect on teachers’ job satisfaction.

The results regarding the effect of academic and professional qualifications of SSST teachers on their job satisfaction were of more interest. The job satisfaction level of less academically and professionally qualified teachers have been found more than that of highly academically and professionally qualified teachers. The findings of other studies related to qualification in the literature are mixed. Some scholars found that highly qualified teachers exhibited more job satisfaction levels (Ali, 2011; Rauf, 2012) while some scholars believed that qualification and teachers’ job satisfaction has not associated with each other (Iqbal, 2010).

The researchers established that the selected five independent demographic variables have a significant impact on SSST job satisfaction. The five independent variables cause 46% variance in SSST job satisfaction. Among the five independent variables highest professional qualification contributes more to teachers’ job satisfaction while length of service proved to be less significant contributor to teachers’ job satisfaction. These findings of current study were supported by the findings of many other national and international studies that found that age, gender (Ghazi, 2004; Koustelios, 2001). The teachers’ job satisfaction has been significantly impacted by their teaching experience (Ghazi, 2004). In contrast, some scholars established that age, gender, and teaching experience proved not to make noteworthy contributions to teachers’ job satisfaction (Crossman & Harris, 2006; Fran?k, et al., 2014).

The researchers sketch the conclusions on the basis of the study findings. The researchers established that the overall level of SSST job satisfaction was found high. Similarly, the levels of job satisfaction of SSST for each construct i.e. “school administration, working conditions, in-service training opportunities, selecting teaching as profession and with the teaching-learning process at school” was also found high. The mean scores of SSST job satisfaction regarding five selected demographic variables show that males, less aged, less experienced and less academically and professionally degree holders SSST were found more satisfied than others. The values of t-statistics and ANOVA revealed significant effect the five selected demographic variables of SSST i.e. “gender, age, length of service, highest academic and professional qualification” on SSST job satisfaction. The values of standardized beta revealed that all the five selected personal characteristics of SSST have significant impact on SSST job satisfaction.

In order to increase SSST job satisfaction levels, following recommendations are offered to all stakeholders and policymakers.

1. It is recommended that the Government should revise the selection and promotion criteria for teachers. They should be appointed to the nearest station. Their needs, desires, and motives should be given due wattages. The working conditions should be improved through providing facilities, in-service training opportunities, giving respect and honor to teaching profession and paying high salaries like other professions.

2. The study recommends that all the high officials of the school and literacy department including principals, district education officers, directorate, and executives should try to provide congenial and pleasant working conditions based on trust, respect, and equity to enhance job satisfaction level of SSST.

3. Keeping in mind the present scenario of selection and recruiting teachers, it is recommended that Govt. should bring positive changes and reforms in the service structure of the teaching profession which will add to the social prestige of prophetic profession of teaching and attract the more intellectual individuals to opt to teach as profession.

4. Teachers’ autonomy should not only be restricted to the classroom level but also their views should be integrated into decision-making process at school, district, provincial and national levels while making educational policies by the government.

5. Future studies may also be conducted to investigate teachers’ job satisfaction with a large sample size, by changing job satisfaction facets, data collection instruments and nature of the studies. Qualitative research design may prove to be more suitable option to examine more rigorously the challenges and problems which SSST and other teachers face.